Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
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Nine-spotted Beetle King!
The corners of Wang Shouzhe’s mouth twitched a few times. This Fifth Sister of his usually did not normally show off, but in private, she was a little… creepy.
Buzz! Buzz!
The fist-sized Nine-spotted Beetle King’s carapace opened, and its membrane wings flapped rapidly in response to her.
At the same time, Wang Luojing took out a small bamboo flute from her waist, brought it to her lips, and played. It was a unique melody, sharp and high-pitched, and it was rather ear-piercing.
However, the Nine-spotted Beetle King was very familiar with that sound. With a flap of its wings, it emitted a continuous buzzing sound. The other small Nine-spotted Beetles in the box spread their wings and flew, surrounding the Nine-spotted Beetle King like an unpredictable cloud.
At Wang Luojing’s command, the Nine-spotted Beetle King was the first to charge towards the wheat field. Then, the swarm of thousands of beetles followed like a gust of wind. Although they were all ladybugs, the ladybugs in the Arcane Martial World were clearly more ferocious.
They landed on some somewhat shriveled wheat stalks and began to gorge themselves once they found an aphid. Their combat strength was far beyond that of the lacewing larvae. In just half an hour, each Nine-spotted Beetle had killed at least five or six aphids.
Such a biological legion was truly invincible.
“Luojing, well done, well done.” Wang Shouzhe was overjoyed and praised her incessantly. “With your ability, the Wang Clan’s food can be saved.”
“Fourth Brother, it’s not enough.” Wang Luojing shook her head and said, “There’s only slightly more than ten days from the wheat’s filling period to the time it matures. The longer it drags on, the easier it is to reduce production.”
Her grandfather, Wang Xiaozhi, had been a professional farmer his entire life. Having been influenced by him since she was young, she was rather familiar with this profession. Without a word, she took out two huge insects as thick as an arm, in a withered color, from the case of the lacewings.
“Fourth Brother, these two Lacewing Kings produced too many eggs. I’m afraid they won’t be able to live past a month.” Wang Luojing’s heart ached, and she said guiltily, “I hope they’ll contribute to the clan for one last time in their final days.”
As she spoke, she played the bamboo flute again. This time, the sound was completely different from when she was commanding the Nine-spotted Beetle King. Her voice was very low. The two withered-color and gray-laden Lacewing Kings suddenly jolted awake, flapped their wings, and flew into the distance.
They were extremely fast. In a few breaths, they disappeared without a trace. As they flew, their mouthparts constantly vibrated and emitted low-frequency sounds.
“Fourth brother, the Lacewing King has the ability to summon companions,” said Wang Luojing. “I hope they can summon more companions back. There are fewer and fewer lacewings in the wild now. Only some are left in the mountains.”
Wang Shouzhe also began to consider this matter. There was a high possibility that it was the fault of the insecticide powder introduced by the Violet Palace Academy. The large decrease in the number of larvae of aphids also resulted in the decrease in the number of lacewings.
Now that there were signs of an outbreak of the drug-resistant aphids, yet the lacewings could not catch up, something big was likely about to happen.
After two hours, one of the Lacewing Kings had already returned, bring with it a legion. They soared through the wheat fields, hunting aphids in a frenzy. More terrifyingly, as they ate, they began laying eggs on the wheat leaves.
When the sky was about to turn dark, another Lacewing King returned, bringing back more of its kind. The dense army of lacewings was enough to make Wang Shouzhe doubt if the aphids in these thousands of acres of wheat fields were enough to satiate them.
Moreover, the large amount of eggs they laid could be hatched in a few days. The tiny larvae were not to be underestimated either.
Such a spectacular scene gradually attracted the attention of the tenant farmers, who then reported to Wang Xiaozhi. When Wang Xiaozhi arrived later and understood that it was his granddaughter, Wang Luojing’s doing, he was so shocked that he could not even speak.
At that moment, he wept and murmured, “The Wang Clan is saved this time. We are saved.”
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“Fourth Grandfather, our other two farms also have a lot of crops.” Wang Shouzhe said, “I will not get involved in the specific matters. Fourth Grandfather, please discuss them with Luojing yourself.” Although the silkworm farm mainly grows mulberry, it also planted a lot of wheat.
“That’s…” Wang Lanzhi’s face fell when he heard that he had to discuss matters with his granddaughter, and the youngest granddaughter at that.
“Fourth Grandfather, if you think Luojing is redundant, I can bring her back so she doesn’t get in the way here.” Wang Shouzhe said cheerfully.
“She’s not redundant or getting in the way.” Wang Xiaozhi hurriedly shook his head. His ancient face twitched, and he smiled with apparent ingratiation at Wang Luojing. “Luojing, we still have to think of a way to save the other two farms. If there’s anything you want to do, just let grandpa do it.”
Wang Shouzhe smiled. Although this old man, Wang Xiaozhi, was stubborn and favored males over females, there was absolutely no question to his loyalty and sense of belonging to the clan. As long as he could change his mindset, he would still be a pillar of the clan.
Seeing that Wang Xiaozhi had changed his attitude, Wang Shouzhe pulled him to the side again and said with a solemn expression, “Fourth Grandfather, it looks like the pest disaster this time definitely wouldn’t just affect our Wang Clan. I can’t speak for Longzuo, but overall production will probably be reduced by at least 40-50% in the area surrounding Changning Wei.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Wang Xiaozhi was stunned for a moment before he said with a “naive smile”, “If other clans’ productions are reduced, and only our clan has a bountiful harvest…”
“In this world, there are often no absolutes for good and bad things,” Wang Shouzhe said coldly. “Sometimes, things that seem very good often turn into bad things.”
Wang Xiaozhi was startled, but he immediately reacted. “Shouzhe, you mean that the other families will covet us?”
“It would be fine if they just covet us.” Wang Shouzhe’s expression was very solemn. “As the saying goes, worry not about scarcity, but uneven distribution. There’s nothing to be said if everyone suffers disaster together. If our Wang Clan has a prosperous harvest alone, forget those hostile clans, even clans with relatively good relations with us will likely develop hostility towards us. If we’re not careful, the Wang Clan of Ping’an might become the target of public condemnation.”
“Then what should we do? Our Wang Clan is already in a precarious situation now. If we still…” Wang Xiaozhi was anxious all of a sudden. He was only a long-time clan elder working in agriculture, after all, and knew too little about this aspect.
“Fourth Grandfather, calm down. Sometimes, bad things often turn into good things too.” Wang Shouzhe smiled confidently. “It depends on how this matter is handled. We need to manipulate the situation to our advantage. Let’s plan for a moment. Firstly, there are the three clans, Xu Clan of Changning, Gongsun Clan of Shanyang, and Liu Clan of Shanyin. They have been intermarried with our Wang Clan of Ping’an for a long time, and we’re naturally close to each other. Naturally, we need to find a way to assist them.”
In fact, among the three families, Wang Shouzhe had the best impression of the Gongsun Clan of Shanyang. This was not just because his current legitimate mother was from the Gongsun Clan, but because the Gongsun Clan’s way was more generous and open-minded. They did not look down on the Wang Clan of Ping’an, even if it was relatively in poor straits now.
Of course, this was also related to the arranged marriage between the main lineages before. The current patriarch of the Gongsun family was Gongsun Mo, and his mother, Wang Lingdie, was a main descendant of the fourth generation of the Wang Clan.
On the other hand, the Xu Clan of Changning was an extremely powerful Arcane Martial Clan. It was not much inferior to the Wang Clan of Ping’an during its strongest period. At that time, the main lineages of the two clans intermarried and had a close relationship
Unfortunately, later…
With a complicated and pained expression, Wang Xiaozhi nodded and said, “That’s right. These three families are deeply connected to our Wang Clan’s bloodline through intermarriage. It’s just a pity for Sister Zhenmei…”
Wang Shouzhe knew what he was talking about. Back then, after the upheaval in the Wang Clan, in order to consolidate their relationship with the Changning and the Xu Clans, under the arrangements of Ancestor Longyan, the main daughter of the fifth generation of Wang Clan, Grandaunt Zhenmei, married the eldest main son of the Xu Clan.
Wang Zhenmei did not disappoint. Several years later, she became pregnant with the direct bloodline, and the relationship between the two clans reached its closest state. Unfortunately, Grandaunt Wang Zhenmei died from a difficult birth for some inexplicable reason, resulting in the tragedy of her death and the death of her unborn child.
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At that time, the Wang Clan was in an ineffable state of grief. The brothers of the generation name Xiao all went to the Xu Clan of Changning to cause a huge commotion. Even Ancestor Longyan was alerted and personally came to perform an autopsy. They only stopped after finding nothing suspicious.
From then on, a rift occurred in the Wang Clan and Xu Clan’s intimate relationship. Their engagement only remained at the level of direct lineages and no longer involved the main lineage.
Similarly, the relationship between the Liu Clan of Shanyin and the Wang Clan was somewhat complicated and difficult to explain in a few words.
However, complicated as it might be, the bloodline relationships between them could not be erased. They still had to help each other at the critical moment.
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